Space Is the Place

Sci-fi dance trio Klaxons originally hail from the Midlands, an area in central England that’s very much its own separate and unusual entity or in the case of these Londoners-by-way-of-the Midlands, a provincial galaxy. This futuristic post-punk outfit’s structured-meets-chaotic sound is pretty much out of this world, soaring from the exponential heights of erratic meteorites yet grounded with math-like rhythmic precision. Like a first-prize winner at the science fair who makes the workings of their active volcano seem simple, Klaxons transform esoteric musical principles into intensely addictive dance-driven art-punk. Their equally obscure band moniker, taken from an electromagnetical horn named from a Greek verb that means “to shriek,” fits the urgency and frantic feeling of their debut album Myths of the Near Future. With bleeps and whirs and noise effects that sound like they are coming straight from a launching rocket, Klaxons have changed the definition of dance music, making it corrosive and calculated, and undeniably fun with a rudimentary DIY punk spirit meshed with a calculated mad-scientist’s unwavering control. The song titles on Myths of the Near Future read like chapters of a sci-fi novel; “Atlantis to Interzone” is a frenetic dance explosion with jarring guitars, the screech of blaring sirens and samples that would fall easily into a Happy Mondays club banger, while “Golden Skans” is a more subdued radio-friendly track that highlights the trio's amazing sonic versatility. The most overtly romantic track “Gravity’s Rainbow,” named for the postmodern novel by Thomas Pynchon, is also a nod to themes of fantasy-fiction and chronicles a time-traveling love affair that urges “come with me we’ll travel to infinity/ I’ll always be there, my future love.” Dance in your spacesuit like it’s the year 4000, when Klaxons play the Great American Music Hall on Wednesday, July 11.